Vol. 59.] ANNIVEKSARY ADDKESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixvii 



That being so, I have asked myself, as your elected representative, 

 whether it would not be good for us, as a united family of geologists 

 met here together at the close of one era and the opening of the 

 next, to take stock, as it were, of the work which Geology has 

 already accomplished, and note how we are prepared to face the 

 tasks which the new era will demand of our science and of ourselves. 



But self-centred though we may be as individual geologists, and 

 self-centred though we may consider our science, we share the 

 common lot of all men, and our science shares the common lot of all 

 the sciences. As individuals we receive from our fellow-men all 

 that makes for our social well-being ; and our science owes its very 

 existence, and most of the conditions that make for its progress, 

 to the aid and sympathy afforded by its fellow-sciences. 



We have, therefore, no right to make this prospect or retrospect 

 in the family privacy of our own science, without regard to the 

 feelings or the claims of others. Geology has not only its privileges 

 but also its duties, and the entire world of science and practice 

 has the right of demanding a justification of the faith that is in us. 

 Nor do I think that it asks too much if it insists upon a categorical 

 answer to the questions : — What is this Geology of which we are 

 so proud and so confident ? What has it done for the mental or 

 material benefit of the human race ? and on what grounds does it 

 justify its claim to respect and support as one of the factors in the 

 advance of humanity ? 



Par be it from me to presume to attempt to reply on your behalf 

 to questions of so serious an import. That task must be left in part 

 to the eloquent apologists of our science, and in part to the results 

 achieved by the great workers in geology — results that carry the 

 answer with them. But on an occasion like the present, I doubt 

 whether we can do anything better or more appropriate to the time 

 than have a quiet but open talk together over the position and 

 relations of our science. 



Geology and its Fellow- Sciences. 



Geology and Astronomy. — In the words of one of the most 

 devoted adherents of our science, we might say ' without impropriety, 

 that all the physical sciences are included under two great heads — 

 Astronomy and Geology : the one comprehending all those sciences 

 which teach us the constitution, the motions, the relative places, and 

 the mutual action of the Astra, or heavenly bodies ; while the other 



